There’s something about Mary (Sandra Bullock) and it’s not that she’s a Cameron Diaz type with multiple men swooning around her… In this, Bullock’s real life production company has long been trying to launch this female driven bromance. Mary is a nerdy, factual, know-it-all, crossword puzzle writer for the local newspaper, but she hasn’t a love life (or anylife for that matter.) But when she agrees to go on a blind date, she falls ga-ga over Steve (Bradley Cooper.) Can you blame her? And she begins stalking him at his various assignments. Turns out he’s a cameraman to a would-be news anchor (Thomas Haden Church) and they chase headline stories while Mary chases them. But like her overly-highlighted hair and ridiculous little red riding hood boots, the movie doesn’t quite work. Her earlier summer success “The Proposal” is the kind of character we love Bullock to be. She’s too likable an actress to try to play un-likable. Men like Owen Wilson, Seth Rogen and Vince Vaughn can play losers, but there’s a reason women haven’t tried this type of role before. It just doesn’t work. That said, Bullock really gives her all to this level-five-psycho-ditz and somehow (good script writing?) we finally come to accept her. In the end the metaphor is that her crossword puzzle job much like life, has words that can mean good things, hurtful things, kind things and empty things where no words can be said or fill in the empty spaces. Two tiaras
